While Sunday's 45-3 defeat at the hands of second-ranked Penn State was pretty much a nightmare for Northwestern, a Sunday afternoon in Rec Hall ended up being a dream come true for the Nittany Lions' Caleb Livingston.

Livingston, a senior from Upper Darby, got the call at 165 pounds to mark the first time in his career he wrestled a home dual meet. He responded with a fall over Anthony Petrone and won the Ridge Riley Award given to the dual meet's outstanding wrestler.

"The atmosphere was awesome, and wrestling in front of Rec Hall has always been a dream of mine since I've been on the team 4 1/2 years ago,'' Livingston said.

Livingston was a late addition because Northwestern was going to forfeit three weight classes because of injury to one starter and two others who contracted skin conditions. Wildcats coach Matt Storniolo, who won a PIAA title for State College High and wrestled one season for Penn State prior to transferring to Oklahoma, opted to use substitute Petrone at 165 and Penn State elected to allow Livingston to wrestle instead of Vincenzo Joseph.

Livingston was presented his Ridge Riley Award by Bill Vollrath and his family. Vollrath is the father of former Penn State wrestler James Vollrath, who died in December from a rare form of cancer.

"Then I found out when I won the Ridge Riley award that in Jim Vollrath's last match in Rec Hall (three seasons ago) he also won the Ridge Riley Award (against Northwestern) with a pin,'' Livingston said. "To me that was pretty special. He was a good friend of mine and a wrestling partner.

"It really meant a lot to me that we had very similar circumstances and I was able to win the award.''

Livingston has been the good soldier in the Penn State wrestling room, something you see frequently among high-caliber teams from wrestlers who don't get to compete very often. Livingston gained 40 pounds and wrestled six bouts at heavyweight last season for the Nittany Lions when Nick Nevills was injured.

"Yeah, I feel a little lighter now that I'm not a heavyweight anymore,'' he said. "It took me a while to get that weight off. I went up to 205 and that was a lot of Canyon Pizza; it was eight dollars for a whole pie, I couldn't stop myself.

Livingston said it's easier to gain weight but it's "definitely not as much fun as everyone thinks it is after the first 10 pounds.''

But it was fun on Sunday when he laced Petrone's leg and used a power half-nelson to torque Petrone to his back.

"That's a move I have to credit Zain (Retherford) with for showing me,'' Livingston said. "I learned it because he hit it on me about three or four times in one match and pinned me with it.

"I was like, 'Hey, you've got to show me that move because I wasn't going anywhere.' We worked on it about two weeks ago and when I got on top of him I felt his arm extend and I knew that move was there and went for it.''

After he got it, he raised his arms in victory and soaked in some admiration from the season's largest Rec Hall crowd of 6,630.

"That might be my only chance to wrestle in front of Rec Hall, so I'm happy I got to make the most of it. It's always been a dream to wrestle in front of this big crowd and get a pin. I kind of enjoyed the moment.''

Penn State (10-0, 6-0 BIG) enjoyed winning moments in nine bouts, as only George Carpenter lost at 133. The Lions earned bonus points in seven bouts, including the two forfeits, one of which prevented the crowd from watching the home debut of freshman Mark Hall, whose redshirt was removed against Iowa.

"There's nothing we can do about that,'' Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said about the forfeits. "They're (Northwestern) in a tough situation. It seems like they, of all the teams in the Big Ten, they have the most forfeits. But they also, I think, have a roster limit of 22.''

The Lions beat Wisconsin in Madison on Friday and lengthy travel didn't get them back to State College until Saturday evening.

"You know, you're in Wisconsin two days ago and you get back in time to get off the bus and go right to practice last night and then wrestle again,'' Sanderson said. "All things considered, we wrestled well.''

Nick Suriano started Penn State off at 125 with a six-pack of points by reversing Anthony Rubineti to his back and pinning him just 10 seconds in the second period.

Northwestern (6-5, 1-4) put up its only points at 133 when Jason Isparides took down Carpenter in the first period and held off Carpenter's offensive attempts in the waning seconds of the bout to win 4-3.

Carpenter's effort had another jam-packed, sellout Rec Hall crowd buzzing and Jimmy Gulibon at 141 kept that buzz going by taking down Alec McKenna in just six seconds. Gulibon added five more takedowns and a nearfall en route to a technical fall (20-5) in 5:25.

Defending NCAA champ Zain Retherford recorded his 50th straight victory without breaking a sweat as Northwestern forfeited at 149. Jason Nolf won by fall at 157 and Hall picked up a forfeit after Livingston's victory.

Nevills needed a riding time point to shade Jennings 5-4. Jennings hooked up a cradle at bout's end for a takedown and a video review did not reveal back points Jennings would have needed to win.

Northwestern's Storniolo said the Rec Hall experience was good for his young team mired in a rebuilding season.

"It's good to come back and compete in an environment like this because not every match can be in a comfortable setting, and this is probably about as hostile as it gets,'' Storniolo said.

"I wish some of these fans would remember that I did wrestle here and I never lost a match in this gym and I was Big Ten Freshman of the Year for this program. It was kind of disappointing to hear some of the things they had to say to me.''